Funny: Angry Bear finds some of the usual suspects explaining How to Debate Paul Krugman, and the answer appears to be this: invent a straw man who bears no resemblance at all to the economist/columnist of the same name, and ridicule that imaginary person. I have to say, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I could play the role of History’s Greatest Monster to so many people. Thank you for the honor!

Aside from the silliness of the exercise, this little exchange is another illustration of a point I’ve noticed before: the way hard-right commentators assume that the other side must be their mirror image. They insist that no government intervention is ever justified; so liberals must support any and all government interventions. They want smaller government, as a principle; liberals must want bigger government, never mind what for. They believe that deficits and printing money are always evil; liberals must be for deficits and money-printing under all circumstances.

An hour spent browsing this blog would quickly refute all of this, together with the bizarre charge that I never look at evidence; you may not agree with my conclusions, but I sure do post a lot of numbers. But obviously looking at what I actually write would just be too painful.

Oh, btw, I figured I’d repay Prof. Krugman by suggesting him for president in 2016. (See my latest post, from this morning.) We’ll probably need a draft for that, though. Something more than just a nice breeze.

here’s krugman again, with a follow-up post inspired by the Angry Bear discussion…

Money, Wealth, and Models – Some further thoughts inspired by the welcome hatred of the usual suspects toward yours truly. One quite common statement among the Austrianish horde is something along the lines of “It’s ridiculous to imagine, as Krugman does, that you can create real wealth by printing more pieces of paper.” Well, it may be ridiculous, but it’s also true, under certain conditions — namely, when the economy is suffering from inadequate demand..